Hideo Kojima confirmed in a post on X that PlayStation Studios unexpectedly notified Kojima Productions in mid-June 2026 that it was cancelling Physint, the stealth-action game first revealed at a 2024 PlayStation State of Play. No official reason was given at the time. Kojima said the studio spent the following three months searching for a new partner before agreeing to continue the project with Xbox, citing a shared vision between the companies. He stressed that development of Physint is ongoing.
New reporting from Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier, as detailed by TechPowerUp and Wccftech, points to behind-the-scenes issues as the real drivers of PlayStation's decision. According to people described as insiders who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, Physint had missed development deadlines and was on track to run well over budget, despite still being years from release. Schreier's sources also said the commercial performance of Kojima's two Death Stranding games did not meet PlayStation's revenue expectations, and that this weighed on the decision to walk away.
Exclusivity was another factor cited in the reporting. Sources told Schreier that PlayStation was reluctant to commit hundreds of millions of dollars to a game that would not remain permanently exclusive to its hardware, noting that both Death Stranding titles were only timed exclusives before appearing on other platforms. Kojima Productions, rather than PlayStation, retained ownership of the franchise. Wccftech's report adds that Xbox's plan to publish Physint on PC as well as Xbox—unlike PlayStation, which would not benefit if Kojima Productions later released a PC version independently—made the project more attractive to Xbox, especially given that Death Stranding has generated notable revenue on PC.
TechPowerUp notes that the timing of PlayStation's mid-June cancellation coincided with reports that PlayStation was shifting toward PS5-exclusive titles, raising the possibility of friction over platform strategy, though this remains speculative. With the move to Xbox, Physint will no longer be a PlayStation exclusive, though TechPowerUp cautions that day-one PC availability is uncertain given the game's existing development timeline. The Xbox deal also reportedly includes film and television rights for both Physint and Kojima's other project, OD.
Both outlets frame the Physint cancellation as part of a broader pattern at PlayStation. TechPowerUp points to other recent cancellations, including Sony's decision to pull the plug on a Destiny 2 project, ongoing struggles to launch Bungie's Marathon, the shuttering of Bluepoint Games after a cancelled multiplayer God of War title, and a scaled-back version of Guerrilla Games' Horizon: Hunters Gathering, which had previously been attributed to player feedback rather than executive decisions. Wccftech similarly lists hardware price increases, a push toward live-service games, studio closures, and the planned end of disc production in 2028 as contributing to broader criticism of PlayStation's recent direction.